Af-Am Loses Concentrators

Each morning, the members of Harvard’s African and African American Studies Department pass by Cornel R. West ’74 on the way to their offices on the second floor of the Barker Center. He does not bid them “Good morning,” nor does he offer so much as a wave. He just sits there, day after day, wearing the same black suit and the same intense, intellectual look on his face.

West may have left Harvard for Princeton in 2002 after a bitter public dispute with University President Lawrence H. Summers, but in many ways his presence continues to be felt at the College. The photograph of West—prominently displayed at the department’s office—is only the most conspicuous symbol of this fact.

Since the loss of West and fellow star African American Studies Professor K. Anthony Appiah, who joined West at Princeton last year, the department has had to deal with two opposing forces—a contraction in concentration and class enrollment numbers, and an expansion of the department to include African Studies, which used to be a certificate program. This merger culminated last fall when the African American Studies Department was renamed the African and African American Studies Department.

These changes reflect a department that is emerging from the aftermath of West’s departure and attempting to define itself in a new way by looking to new ways of attracting and educating students.

“It’s a shift away from very visible public intellectuals to very prolific intellectuals who are not necessarily recognizable in a public sphere,” says Glenda R. Carpio, assistant professor of African and African American Studies. “That’s a significant shift, and it’s going to take some time for the number of concentrators to catch up.”

SOUTH AFTER WEST

West’s departure has driven the department’s course enrollment and concentration numbers south.

“In the classroom, Cornel West was the man,” says Department Chair and W.E.B. Du Bois Professor of the Humanities Henry Louis “Skip” Gates, Jr., who is on leave at Princeton this year.

“Nobody replaces Cornel,” Gates adds.

While West taught the introductory course Af-Am 10, “Introduction to Afro-American Studies,” the class saw enrollments of 584 in the 2001 and 316 in 1999. Today, the course enrollment has plummeted to 17 students under the auspices of Professor of Government Michael C. Dawson and Professor of African and African American Studies Evelynn M. Hammonds.

Af-Am 10 is not the only course that has seen a drop in enrollment.

In the 2001-2002 academic year, total undergraduate enrollment in all Af-Am departmental classes peaked at 1,056 students. But in the 2002-2003 school year, enrollment dropped precipitously to 337 students, a decline of 719 students. This year, enrollment stood at 305 students—a drop of about 70 percent over two years.

But Gates notes that there are high enrollments in courses in the Core and in other departments that are cross-listed with the Af-Am department.

The department has also seen a significant decline in the number of concentrators. In the 1997-1998 academic year, Af-Am had 34 concentrators, and 21 concentrators in West’s last year, 2001-2002. This year, that number has dwindled to 11—down from 17 last year.

But Carpio says she feels that the declines in class enrollments and concentrators are coming to an end.

“It’s been two years now, and I think we have enough material to reflect upon, to rethink a few things,” she says. “But it’s only now.”

The department, Carpio says, must learn to live without the big name professors and rely instead on those who have made their name simply as intellectuals, not necessarily public intellectuals.

NEW ROADS

One possible way to bring students back into the concentration is to restructure the department’s introductory courses, Gates says.

“We have to reconfigure Af-Am 10. Basically it was Cornel West 10,” he says.

Gates describes large introductory courses as “funnels” of students into concentrations. And so when West dropped Harvard, students dropped out of Af-Am.

Gates says of the several hundreds of students who would take West’s introductory course, many would find it enjoyable and then decide to concentrate in Af-Am.

He says now there needs to be new points of entry into the department.

“What we need to do is have more of us teach lecture courses and figure out which courses are most responsive to the students,” Gates says.

One plan he suggests would make two Core classes introductory courses for the department. Literature and Arts B-82, “Sayin’ Something: Jazz as Sound, Sensibility and Social Dialogue,” could become the introductory humanities course, while Social Analysis 68, “Race, Class and Poverty in Urban America,” could become the introductory social studies class.

“Sayin’ Something” is taught by Jones Professor of African American Music Ingrid Monson and “Race, Class and Poverty” is taught by Geyser University Professor William Julius Wilson.

Next year, Af-Am 10, the department’s current introductory course, will also fulfill a Core requirement, as it did under West.

“They changed the syllabus, they changed the faculty,” explains Director of the Core program Susan W. Lewis of the reasons behind why the course this year does not fulfill a Core requirement. “[Af-Am 10] is not the course that was approved by the Core the year that Professor West taught it.”

The department is confident this reintroduction of Af-Am 10 will cause a spike in enrollment—last year, without West but with Core credit, enrollment was at 96 students. That course, however, was taught by Gates, a more renowned intellectual than Hammonds, who will teach the course alone next year.

Gates also predicts that with the introduction of an African track to the department, the number of concentrators will rise.

“We’re about to double the number of concentrators overnight,” he says.

Students who in the past could only graduate with a certificate in African studies can now concentrate in the department’s African Studies track.

The highlight of Harvard’s African Studies program is its African Language program, which is under the direction of John M. Mugane. Eight languages—Bamana, Hausa, Igbo, Kikongo, Malagasi, Twi, Xhosa and Yoruba—now join Swahili in the collection of African languages Harvard offers.

Beyond the language program, Gates says the African side of the department needs to see growth elsewhere. He hopes to hire an anthropologist who deals with Africa, as well as African literature and music professors, to bolster the department.

STAR POWER

While Gates and others tout these new ways of attracting students, others say that the old method of relying on star power still has its draw.

“I think that people are galvanized, excited to take a seminar with a ‘Jamaica Kincaid,’” says Acting Department Chair Lawrence D. Bobo, referring to the renowned author who is a member of the department.

Bobo recalls the days when West taught Af-Am 10 as proof of what a star professor can do.

“[When] one of the most dynamic public intellectuals of the global stage offers a course, people are drawn to it,” he says. “I don’t think we’ll ever probably get back to the 4[00], 5[00], 600 enrollment courses Cornel West offered, but I would expect we will do better over the next couple of years.”

Chair of the Ethnic Studies Committee Werner Sollors, who is also a professor of African and African American Studies, sees a similar link between a course’s professor and its enrollment.

“I would expect you’d really have to find another charismatic speaker like Cornel in order to get these gigantic figures,” Sollors says. “But there might be somebody who is intriguing enough to draw half the students [Cornel did] and that would already be great.”

But in shifting its focus away from star professors and towards intellectuals who fly below the public radar, these enrollment numbers are perhaps gone for good.

“I don’t think the target [of professor searches] is to get the kind of charismatic lecturer who will draw the students,” Sollors says.

Bobo confirms there are no immediate plans to bring a high-profile professor to the department.

“There are not going to be any surprises opened at the end of this year,” he says. “But I think next year I would hope that we are more in the active search business. Exactly what those areas will be or who the people are, we’ll see how the faculty’s interests [are aligned] next year.”

Though Bobo currently occupies the head of the table at department meetings, he looks forward to handing that seat over to Gates when he returns from leave next year.

“I’m coming back,” Gates says. “If I were going to leave, I would have left.”

Gates also says that the department’s rift with Summers is a thing of the past.

“I think that Larry will be a great president and I enjoy working with him,” he says. “[We] have a warm working relationship.”

While enrollment numbers suggest students are losing interest in Af-Am, Gates affirms his department’s position at the pinnacle of its field.

“We have retained our number one status in the world,” he says, while admitting there is work yet to be done.

“We’re in the process of getting our feet, getting our stride,” he says.

—Staff writer William C. Marra can be reached at wmarra@fas.harvard.edu.